My notes, things I have learned, and documentation I have created.

I used this method for installing the latest java plugin on a CentOS 5.4 system.

Download latest java (jre-6u18-linux-x64.bin) from java.com.
I installed all my java versions in /usr/java. This is where I save the bin file downloaded.
cd /usr/java
chmod 744 jre-6u18-linux-x64.bin
To install java:
./jre-6u18-linux-x64.bin

To install the plugin into your latest version of firefox:
cd /usr/lib64/firefox-3.0.16.
mkdir plugins #I had to create this directory.
ln -s /usr/java/jre1.6.0_18/lib/amd64/libnpjp2.so

Restart firefox.

To install the public release key:

rpm –import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-redhat-release

This allows you to install from the local source. For me, I had copied all the packages from the RHEL5 CDs to a directory to use “yum localinstall.” Importing the key as outlined above enabled me to install the packages without getting the following error:

warning: rpmts_HdrFromFdno: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 37017186

If you have linux running in VMware Workstation and want to access one of the virtual terminals, you need to hit CTRL-ALT-SPACE and then let go of the SPACE (while continuing to hold the CTRL-ATL) and hit the virtual terminal you want to access (one of the function keys (F1-F12).

I used the following configuration to use different xinetd directives for a service depending on which interface the connection was initiated on. In the following example, my LAN interface has IP address 192.168.0.1, and my Internet interface has IP address 10.10.10.10. I used procedures very similar to these to configure to use two different sets of directives for an SMTP server on a system running RHEL5.

The first thing I did was create a new entry in the /etc/services file. I will use telnet as an example.

vi /etc/services
…
telnetnew 23/tcp
…

Create new service configuation file:

vi /etc/xinetd.d/telnetnew

service telnetnew
{
disable = no
flags = REUSE
wait = no
user = root
server = /usr/sbin/in.telnetd
socket_type = stream
protocol = tcp
log_on_failure += USERID
log_on_success += USERID
only_from = 192.168.0.0/24
instances = 100
bind = 192.168.0.1
}

Modify the existing /etc/xinetd.d/telnet configuration file with new directives:

vi /etc/xinetd.d/telnet
…
no_access = 192.168.0.0/24
instances = 1
bind = 10.10.10.10
…

Create the new service and enable it:

chkconfig –add telnetnew
chkconfig telnetnew on

Reload xinetd to implement the new configuration and the start the new service.

service xinetd reload

This configuration will enable only one telnet connection from the Internet and 100 from the LAN segment. I used this type of configuration for an SMTP server to reduced the number of connections from the Internet.

Options
Security Options
General Settings
Press the menu button.
Select Wipe Handheld.
You will prompted to enter “blackberry” to confirm.

Once you have obtained an unlock code from your carrier or other means, do the following:

Options
Advanced Options
Sim Card
Enter MEPD
Note: You will see nothing change on the screen.
Enter MEP2
Note: You will see nothing on the screen, until you hit the Enter key.
Enter the code you obtained.

At the top of the screen, you should see “SIM Card Security Disabled.”

To remove an icon from toolbar (top of the screen) hold down the “command” button and drag the icon to the Trash.

I used the following procedures to install Thunderbird 3.0 with the Enigmail add-on to send encrypted email. I found myself needing to do this when I upgraded Thunderbird via yum from the CentOS repository. Instead of going back to the older version, I decided move ahead since I had also had trouble with the 64 bit version of Thunderbird when using the Enigmail add-on. Also, I liked the changes made from Thunderbird 2.0 to 3.0 that I saw in Fedora. Note: I found that I needed to remove the old Enigmail add-on before upgrading. Then after following the steps below, I installed the latest Enigmail add-on.

# yum –disablerepo=rpmforge install cvs zip gcc-c++ glib2-devel gtk2-devel fontconfig-devel libnotify-devel libIDL-devel alsa-lib-devel libXt-devel freetype-devel pkgconfig dbus-glib-devel curl-devel autoconf213 xorg-x11-proto-devel libX11-devel libXau-devel libXext-devel

The following was installed from the rpmforge repository.
# yum install mercurial
# cd /usr/local/src
# wget ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/thunderbird/releases/3.0/source/thunderbird-3.0.source.tar.bz2

# tar -xjvf thunderbird-3.0rc2.source.tar.bz2
# cd comm-1.9.1/
# vi .mozconfig
…
ac_add_options –prefix=/usr/local/thunderbird
ac_add_options –disable-tests
ac_add_options –disable-debug
ac_add_options –enable-crypto
ac_add_options –enable-optimize
ac_add_options –enable-static
ac_add_options –enable-static-mail
ac_add_options –enable-application=mail
mk_add_options MOZ_CO_PROJECT=mail
…
# make -f client.mk configure
# make -C mozilla tier_base
# make -C mozilla tier_nspr
# make -C mozilla tier_js
# make export
# make -C mozilla/modules/libreg
# make -C mozilla/xpcom/string
# make -C mozilla/xpcom
# make -C mozilla/xpcom/obsolete
# cd mailnews/extensions/
# wget http://www.mozilla-enigmail.org/download/source/enigmail-1.0.0.tar.gz
# tar -zxvf enigmail-1.0.0.tar.gz
# cd enigmail/
# ./makemake -r
# make
# cd /usr/local/src/comm-1.9.1
# make -f client.mk build
# gmake install

Here is an example of a VB script I used to set the domain suffix search list on a Windows machine. I just saved the following in a file with a vbs extension and executed the script.

SET WSHShell = CreateObject(“WScript.Shell”)

WSHShell.RegWrite “HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\TCPIP\Parameters\SearchList”, “mydomain1.com,mydomain2.com”, “REG_SZ”

The following was done on a machine running CentOS 5.4 and Vmware Workstation 7. I used a Kingwin PATA USB enclosure for a 20GB 2.5” hard drive that came out of a Dell Insprion 4100 laptop.

Download 59874-dos71cd-26343.zip from http://www.syschat.com/download60.html&act=down.

Unzip the file, and burn the DOS71CD.ISO image to a CD. I used K3b on my CentOS 5.4 host.

Remove the laptop hard drive and put it in a USB drive enclosure.

Connect laptop hardrive in USB enclosure.

The drive should have all partitions removed, so the DOS installation can create a partition during install.

Create MS-DOS Vmware instance with the USB drive accessed via a physical drive (The only hard drive for this instance.), and the DOS71CD.ISO image file as the CD device.

Make sure that both have “Connect at power on” checked.

Boot the CD/ISO by powering on the newly created Vmware instance.

Go through the installation process and allow the installation to create the boot partition and install the MBR and install Smartdrv.

Once the installation is completed, verify that the USB drive boots by unchecking “Connect at power on” for the CD.

Boot the drive up to verify is boots DOS.

Power down the Vmware instance.

Then, copy the I386 directory from the Windows XP CD to the USB drive. I did this from my CentOS 5.4 Vmware host.

Remove the hard drive the enclosure, and put it back in the laptop.

Boot the laptop into DOS. Note: This did not work for me. I had to boot off a floppy and use “fdisk /mbr” to fix the Master Boot Record. Once, I did this things went pretty quickly.

Run smartdrv. Note: This made a huge difference.

Cd i386.

Run winnt.exe.

This will take quite a while (hours even, although not so in my case). It will even appear stuck on the copying files screen, but it will still be working.

I had to boot a few times during the XP install during the copying files stage. It looks like the install also repaired the boot loader. Nonetheless, in the end it is working fine.